Sunday, June 20, 2010

The Horrible Methane Gas Disaster Scenario in the Gulf

With the emerging evidence of fissures, the quiet fear now is the methane bubble rupturing the seabed and exploding into the Gulf waters. If the bubble escapes, every ship, drilling rig and structure within the region of the bubble will instantaneously sink. All the workers, engineers, Coast Guard personnel and marine biologists measuring the oil plumes' advance will instantly perish.

As horrible as that is, what would follow is an event so potentially horrific that it equals in its fury the Indonesian tsunami that killed more than 600,000, or the destruction of Pompeii by Mt. Vesuvius.

The ultimate Gulf disaster, however, would make even those historical horrors pale by comparison. If the huge methane bubble breaches the seabed, it will erupt with an explosive fury similar to that experienced during the eruption of Mt. Saint Helens in the Pacific Northwest. A gas gusher will surge upwards through miles of ancient sedimentary rock—layer after layer—past the oil reservoir. It will explode upwards propelled by 50 tons psi, burst through the cracks and fissures of the compromised sea floor, and rupture miles of ocean bottom with one titanic explosion.

The burgeoning methane gas cloud will surface, killing everything it touches, and set off a supersonic tsunami with the wave traveling somewhere between 400 to 600 miles per hour.

While the entire Gulf coastline is vulnerable, the state most exposed to the fury of a supersonic wave towering 150 to 200 feet or more is Florida. The Sunshine State only averages about 100 feet above sea level with much of the coastline and lowlands and swamps near zero elevation. A supersonic tsunami would literally sweep away everything from Miami to the panhandle in a matter of minutes. Loss of human life would be virtually instantaneous and measured in the millions. Of course the states of Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and southern region of Georgia—a state with no Gulf coastline— would also experience tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of casualties.

Loss of property is virtually incalculable and the days of the US position as the world's superpower would be literally gone in a flash...of detonating methane.

Obviously a worst case scenario, and I doubt it will happen... hard to believe exploding methane would have that much power to move so much water... but still, it's hard to say that it can't happen.

Unfortunately though, it is now in the form of a rumor and scare-mongering that is surging around the 'Net like a tsunami in itself.

The original source for this rumor appears to be none other than Richard C. Hoagland, the notorious conspiracy theorist/pseudoscientist of some renown. He wrote "The Monuments of Mars" and other interesting books. But Hoagland is no scientist. And 99% of his ideas are way, way out in left field, to put it nicely.

All articles that I have seen written with the same information have posted dates that are subsequent to Hoagland's appearance on "Coast2Coast AM," which was on 14 June, 2010.

Thank you kindly for correcting the very most ignorant part of this bogus report, i.e: the notion by Hoagland -- and the others who copied him -- that the state of Florida has an average elevation of only **six inches**!!! In fact, Hoagland stated on C2C that the "most vulnerable state for (the tsunami) is Florida, where nothing is more than six inches high." Good God in heaven.. how unbelievably ignorant!! There is no designated place, on land, on the entire planet where nothing is more than six inches high!

In any case, there are countless sound, scientific reasons why this Gulf methane-explosion-giant-tsunami scenario is completely fallacious. But in this, the "Information Age," that is the price that we pay for instant access to what others have to share.. some of it is true or at least somewhat accurate. And some of the purported "information" is horribly wrong. The latter can cause problems in cases like this, where the Gulf oil spill is indeed a real problem. It is not likely to become Armageddon, however.

"The potential consequences of large amounts of methane entering the atmosphere, from thawing permafrost or destabilized ocean hydrates, would lead to abrupt changes in the climate that would likely be irreversible. We must not cross that threshold.

Peak Oil and Sustainability/Environmental Sites

The Official 9/11 Story IS a Conspiracy Theory!

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I have no fondness for any religion, as I think it makes people do extreme and violent things. Islamic terrorists do exist and I detest them as much as I detest the true perpetrators of 9/11. Most likely Islamic terrorists were used as patsies in 9/11, as part of a highly organized covert operation by a group affiliated with the US goverment and US military.